Time for a little — make that a lot of — spring-cleaning. The 2008 Trash Attack and Graffiti Wipeout is Saturday, May 3, and you can register now to join in the citywide effort to remove litter and trash and get rid of graffiti. Participants will meet up at the East Dallas DPD storefront, 4545 Bryan, or any number of other locations around the city, then join forces to scrub the city ‘til it shines. Don’t worry — you won’t toil the whole day away. Start at 9 a.m., then lunch with fellow workers at Reunion Arena from noon-1 p.m.

What do you have in common with a dog-faced woman? The human salamander? What about Aquaboy? You just might be surprised. Freakshow, a play by Carson Kreitzer, examines “otherness and the idea of being an outsider, something we all can relate to,” says Elizabeth Ware, director of the Core Performance Manufactory production. Take a trip into the world of a traveling turn-of-the-century sideshow where, shunned by the world, freaks form their own family complete with love and betrayal … just like any other family. Watch the Freakshow April 30-May 17 at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Drive. Tickets are $20 online, or call 214.893.3009.

Tee off to support young athletes at The Tim Brown Woodrow Wilson Golf Tournament at 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, at Indian Creek Golf Club in Carrolton. Woodrow grad Tim Brown, a Heisman Trophy winner and ex-Oakland Raider, graciously funded the tournament, which organizers predict will be bigger and better than ever.

Have you heard the buzz about the Adult Spelling Bee? Spellers face off 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. in Byrd Hall, First Presbyterian Church Dallas. Half Price Books and other well-known organizations have teams in the event, which is designed to raise awareness about adult illiteracy. Proceeds from the bee benefit LIFT Adult Literacy, English as a Second Language (ESL) and Family Literacy programs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. It’s not too late to pull together a team. Download a registration form from lift-texas.org and fax it to 214.824.1636. And if you get nervous about public spelling or don’t have enough people for a team, participate in Audience Spell during the fourth round for $5 per person.

You’re browsing a grocery store aisle, when suddenly everyone around you breaks out into a musical routine. You’d likely be bewildered, and that’s precisely the point of flash mobbing. It’s a relatively new trend of people who go to public places and simultaneously start doing something bizarre. The objective is to confuse spectators who aren’t in on the prank. Flash mobbing has sprouted up all over the globe, but it’s just now reaching Dallas, thanks to Flash Mob DFW and the local chapter of the Civil Confusion Agency. You can watch a recent video online of a stunt the group pulled at NorthPark’s food court.

Every day is a good day to save water, recycle and hug a tree, but officially, Earth Day is April 22, and you’re never too young or old to learn how to help your planet. Here’s a fantastic site that offers entertaining and educational tools to teach little ones about environmental issues. There are scores of good reasons to embrace the 38-year-old holiday, but here’s an especially compelling one: In London, problems related to smoking and cigarette-butt litter led to one charity’s creation of this ugly town square monument. Some might say the money spent on the 30-foot tall cigarette could be better spent on, say, trash cans. (Maybe the perpetrators’ better judgment went up in smoke along with the city’s trash-fighting funds.) 

Imagine waking up one day to find White Rock Lake had vanished. Think that’s impossible? It happened here in Chile, and it happened more than once. Scientists blame the freak lake disappearance on global warming.